Suspension systems of automotive vehicles are positioned between a vehicle body and its wheels to isolate the vehicle body from vibrations and impacts from a road surface. Such systems typically include springs to absorb the vibrations and impacts from the road surface and dampers (or shock absorbers) to dampen oscillations from the springs. Bumpers, also referred to as bump stops, bump rubbers, spring aids, or jounce bumpers, are commonly used to prevent direct metal-to-metal contact between various components of suspension systems, which may occur, for example, when the suspension systems approach their maximum travel limits, i.e., full compression or full extension. For example, bumpers are traditionally positioned around piston rods of hydraulic dampers to prevent metal-to-metal contact between the damper and a top mount during full compression of the damper.
However, due to vehicle packaging constraints, it may be desirable to reduce the size and/or weight of conventional vehicle suspension systems. For example, it may be desirable to reduce the height and/or width of the bumper that is conventionally positioned between the damper and the top mount, but doing so may introduce difficulties in maintaining a minimum amount of clearance between the damper and the top mount, especially during extreme compression events associated with severe irregularities in the road surface. In some situations, it may be beneficial to reduce the height and/or width of the damper itself, but doing so may decrease the surface area of the damper that interfaces with the top mount, which may concentrate the load inputted to the top mount by the damper during a compression stroke. Concentrating the load transferred to the top mount during compression of the damper may cause the top mount to experience excessive wear at the location of the concentrated load.
In addition, vehicles such as automobiles are typically equipped with damper assemblies, also known as shock absorbers, at each wheel. The damper assemblies are part of a larger suspension system, and are used to dampen spring oscillations emitted from a spring, like a coil spring, of the suspension system. At one end, the damper assemblies are usually joined to a moving suspension component, and at another end, the damper assemblies are usually joined to an automotive structure like an automotive body, frame, or subframe.
In the assembly or decking procedure, the joint to the suspension component is sometimes made before the joint to the automotive structure, and the joint to the suspension component is commonly situated substantially vertically or vertically below the joint to the automotive structure. The joint at the automotive structure involves a mount, a stud, a nut, and/or a washer. Initially, the mount and stud are brought together and the nut is only manually fastened on the stud in order to temporarily hold the mount and stud together. Before final fastening, however, the manually-fastened joint can come apart and the mount can lose its place relative to the stud. Moreover, the stud is typically inserted through a hole that is closed around its sides so that the stud and hole must be in-line with the stud's terminal end inserted first into the hole. This can call for an alignment step in the decking procedure.
Still other applications involving joints, such as non-automotive applications, may have a similar assembly procedure and can consequently experience similar issues.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to address, for example, the disadvantages identified above.